Positivity rate for coronavirus dips below 5% in S.A.
San Antonio’s positivity rate for coronavirus infections dipped below 5 percent for the first time since a surge of cases slammed the city over the summer, as officials reached a milestone they have been chasing for months.
The rate of tests coming back positive for the virus dipped to 4.9 percent on Monday, a development that officials had established as one benchmark for tamping down local transmission of the virus. It’s also the rate at which the Metropolitan Health District recommended that in-person instruction at schools could be increased.
With 68 new cases, the cumulative case count rose to 58,746. There were no new deaths, leaving the local death toll from the pandemic at 1,167. The seven-day rolling average of cases fell to 136 cases a day.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg called the lowered positivity rate, down a percentage point from a week ago, “good news.” But he said other indicators, including a slight increase in the area’s 14-day case curve and a recent bump in hospitalizations, indicated that the virus still posed a risk to residents.
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff added that the impact of school reopenings, along with a flu season that overlaps with the coronavirus outbreak, remains to be seen.
“Caution is still very much advised,” Nirenberg said at the daily coronavirus briefing. “We are not out of the woods by any stretch of the matter.”
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 have remained steady for the past few weeks, hovering in the low 200s. On Monday, 219 people were hospitalized with the virus, a figure that was up 19 from Sunday and included 21 new admissions. Eighty-six of those patients were critically ill and 38 were
breathing with the support of a ventilator, both slight increases fromthe previous day.
On Monday, Metro Health also expanded the scope of its coronavirus testing. The department began offering tests to members of the general public who are not experiencing symptoms of COVID.
The broadened testing effort is being conducted in partnership with Community Labs, a nonprofit formed last month to screen asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic people for the virus across the San Antonio area. Although city testing sites briefly served those without symptoms earlier this year, coronavirus testing has largely been available to those suspected of having an infection based on their symptoms.
Community Labs uses a polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, test to detect the coronavirus in samples collected from a simple nasal swab. The results are processed at a local laboratory operated by BioBridge Global and are available within 24 hours.
In rolling out the testing, the city and Community Labs offered 60 slots during an hourlong period at community testing sites on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. All the spots had filled up by the start of testing on Monday morning, when asymptomatic residents were tested by appointment at Cuellar Community Center from 11 a.m. to noon.
Sal Webber, head of operations for Community Labs, said additional testing may also take place on Thursday and Friday but that details had not yet been finalized.
Webber said partnering with the city on testing is “a realization of our vision for whywe started the lab” — to serve the community. The nonprofit piloted its testing in Somerset Independent School District and plans to offer its services to workplaces and other area school districts.
He added that Community Labs has purchased equipment to enable up to 24,000 tests a day in the coming weeks.
Anita Kurian, head of Metro Health's communicable disease division, said during the briefing that health officials have wanted to test asymptomatic residents with a highly accurate test that had been vetted by the Food and Drug Administration. The test that Community Labs is using was developed by Thermo Fisher Scientific and received an emergency use authorization from federal officials earlier this year.
Asymptomatic testing will be limited the first week but is expected to open up to more residents in the coming weeks, Kurian said.